The seriousness of his voice, the warmth in his eyes—for some reason, it makes the bridge of my nose tingle, tears threatening.
“When Warverian took you from us.” His jaw tightens. “When hestoleyou, I felt something I haven’t in a very long time.” He presses his forehead to mine. “Fear. The kind that poisons your mind and sinks into your gut.”
“I was scared, too.” I blink, a single tear rolling down my cheek.
“I know, and it tore me apart. To think he might hurt you, might take you against your will.” Violence surges inside him, rising like a cyclone but dissipating quickly. “But we found you. We willalwaysfind you.”
I press my palms to the backs of his hands. “You came for me.”
“There is nothing in this universe that can keep me from you, Lana. This circle is forever. My loyalty to you is unbreakable. I’d sooner take my own life than turn my back on you.”
I blink and another tear escapes. “You went to a dark place really fast right then.”
That pulls a smile from him. “I’m a Larenoan. Darkness is my specialty. And now we share it.” He kisses my forehead and wipes my tears, then we get moving again.
“Hey.” I pull Jeren to a stop.
He gives me a questioning glance.
I arch a brow at him. “Did you just call me your ‘beloved’ a minute ago?”
“Yes.” He tugs me along.
“That’s pretty, you know, serious.”
“It is,” he agrees easily. “You’re my mate.”
“Would you love me if I weren’t?”
He sighs and turns, again moving so quickly that I’m in his arms before I even know what’s happening. When his mouth meets mine, we phase completely dark, the night in my veins as I drink him in, his tongue moving against mine as I run my fingers through his black hair. His kiss is just as aggressive, as masterful as he is, and I want to drown in it, to beg him to never stop, to offer him anything just to feel his lips against mine, our bodies close, our hearts thundering. There’s no holding back, not with Jeren, not when he angles my head to get better access, his touch sending sparks of black shadow skittering along my skin.
All too soon, he pulls back. “We have to keep going.” But his gaze goes back to my lips.
“Move, you two,” Ceredes calls.
Jeren rolls his eyes, some of the tension between us draining away as he drops a kiss on the tip of my nose and leads me through the dark.
Other than that admonition, Ceredes and Kyte are trying to keep their thoughts to themselves. They must have been arrested and loaded up onto a shuttle by now, but they don’t want me to know.
Jeren and I trudge to the edge of the plain, then down into the trees, heading away from the fleet. A brief reprieve. But I know a reckoning is coming.
I only hope I can control myself when it does, because if I can’t …
“You can,” my Alphas whisper to me.
I take comfort in their voices and, despite all evidence to the contrary, I believe them. I have to. Because if I can’t control it, I have no doubt the fleet will find a way to control it for me.
5
Kyte
“What made you think that sealing a circle with a low-born Bellatian, a Larenoan vagabond, and some sort of barbaric race that I’ve never even heard of would be a good idea?” My mother sits across from me in Master Harlan’s office, her green eyes the same as mine, but her sense of social strata quite a bit different.
“Ceredes is the strongest fighter to come through the academy in centuries, maybe more. Jeren is more shadow than solid. And Lana …” My thoughts drift for a moment.
“Lana? That’s not a name.” She sets her chin at a haughty angle.
Despite the shock, the fighting, the death, and the fear that consumed me over the past few hours, I smile when I think of Lana. “She’s my mate. My Omega. I can feel her in my cells, in everything I am.”
